Top aides in the 1st Modi govt Budget

As Arun Jaitley prepares for presenting his first Union Budget, he faces conflicting demands. While growth requires him to be liberal in allocating money to productive sectors, fiscal concerns check this. His top Budget team includes:

Finance Secretary ARVIND MAYARAM:
The ministry's most senior officer, Mayaram (a 1978 batch IAS officer, Rajasthan cadre) came in August 2012 as the economic affairs secretary. He replaced Sumit Bose as finance secretary this April. He had earlier headed a high-level panel on reforms in foreign direct investment, background enough for provisions in the Budget to woo global investors.

Revenue Secretary SHAKTIKANTA DAS:

Das (1980 IAS batch, Tamil Nadu cadre) returned to the finance ministry only last month but has enough experience of budget making to be in the firm control of the revenue department. Having been a joint secretary, budget division, he would be asked for innovative ways of shoring the revenue numbers. His counsel would also count on the issue of retrospective amendments to the income tax law.

Disinvestment Secretary RAVI MATHUR:
The government badly needs to raise new revenues, from non-tax sources, so Mathur (1979 IAS, Rajasthan cadre) has an important role. He was appointed in his present post in January 2013, from the labour ministry. Of a Rs 40,000 crore initial disinvestment target for 2013-14, only Rs 22,000 crore could be raised. Expectations are that the disinvestment target will be substantially raised from the Rs 37,000 crore pegged in the interim Budget.

Expenditure Secretary RATAN WATAL:
Watal (IAS 1978, Andhra cadre) came to the ministry in November 2013, first as Official on Special Duty in the department of expenditure and then in the present post. This will be his first brush with a full budget. With the fiscal deficit assuming primary importance, he has the important job of identifying where to cut wasteful spending and how to raise the productive ones.

Financial Services Secretary R S SANDHU:
Gurdial Singh Sandhu (IAS 1979, Rajasthan) came to the ministry only three months earlier. He recently stated the primary focus would be to revive growth. Implying bank credit to productive sectors would be key. He'd also hinted there might not be further addition to capital infusion for banks than the Rs 11,200 crore provided in the interim Budget, despite the needs of state banks for resources. Rising bad debts are another hurdle for credit expansion. Which is why his inputs will have consequences.